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The Cincinnati Reds make a few announcements on Friday afternoon, all of which were concisely summed up in less than 140 characters:
Corcino starting tonight instead of Latos (bone bruise, right elbow). Schumaker has successful surgery (torn labrum, left shoulder).
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) September 12, 2014
There hasn't been any word on how long we can expect the Reds to be without Mat Latos, but with just three potentially scheduled starts remaining for him this season there's reason to think they might put him on the 2014 shelf for good. Considering the trade winds that have been a-blowing, you can now officially wonder if you've seen Latos on the mound in a Cincinnati jersey for the last time. Damnit, why did I write that.
However, given that the above tweet also contains evidence that the Reds used an injured player - Skip Schumaker - for much of the entire season, there's no way to really be certain of that. Skip, you'll remember, injured his shoulder in Spring Training and missed the first month of the season, yet he still managed to garner 271 PA, a .235/.287/.308 batting line, and -1.1 bWAR to his name before being sent back under the knife. Since they're still giving playing time to Jack Hannahan (who cannot healthily throw a baseball right now) and refuse to rule out Joey Votto's return in 2014, there's no real read in any direction on the injury front, frankly.
Either way, we wish each of the injured Reds well, and hope that the team makes sure they're 100% before putting them back on the field.
Daniel Corcino will get a chance to show his mettle as a starting pitcher in the big leagues for the first time in Latos' stead this evening against the Milwaukee Brewers, and for that we should be moderately excited. Corcino, of course, was ranked by Baseball America as the 94th best prospect in the minors prior to the 2013 season before struggling through much of the last two seasons at Double-A Pensacola and Triple-A Louisville. He's made a pair of appearances for the Reds since being called up this September (the last being September 5th, so he's fresh), and he's made 26 starts across two levels in the minors this season (tallying 148.2 innings in the process). Here's to hoping his second half surge was no mirage and that the righty can be effective on very short notice.
2014 strikes again, folks.
